


will you catch me when I fall?

by BookFangirlMaryJane



Series: TARDIS Advent Calendar Prompts [8]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Ice Skating, Kissing, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Post-Episode: s12e10 The Timeless Children, TARDIS Advent Calendar, Thoschei, somewhat scientifically accurate..., this is long but it's scientifically accurate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:40:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28193355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookFangirlMaryJane/pseuds/BookFangirlMaryJane
Summary: “Come on, come on, come on!” the Doctor squeals, tugging on the Master’s arm to make him walk faster. “You’re so slow! How aren’t you excited?! This is brilliant!”When she turns to look at him, she almost doesn’t catch the fond expression on his face. It’s replaced by a smug smile moments later. “Oh, I am excited. Excited to see you fall flat on your face, luv. I’m thinking five, no, wait, two minutes in.”--o--TARDIS Advent Calendar (by Valc0), today's prompt is 'Ice skating on Saturn.'Warnings: post-series 12, slight spoilers, light angst.
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/The Master (Dhawan)
Series: TARDIS Advent Calendar Prompts [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2041429
Comments: 6
Kudos: 28





	will you catch me when I fall?

**Author's Note:**

> New story!  
> I spent all of yesterday and today on it.  
> It was nice.
> 
> Slight spoilers for series 12, a little bit of angst.

“Come on, come on, come on!” the Doctor squeals, tugging on the Master’s arm to make him walk faster. “You’re so slow! How aren’t you excited?! This is brilliant!”

When she turns to look at him, she almost doesn’t catch the fond expression on his face. It’s replaced by a smug smile moments later. “Oh, I **am** excited. Excited to see you fall flat on your face, luv. I’m thinking five, no, wait, two minutes in.”

She throws him a glare. “Not funny.”

“Incredibly funny,” he counters, but he finally moves a little faster so she doesn’t fire back some snarky comment and instead lets herself be swept up by the excitement again.

“Humans think Saturn is uninhabitable at the moment. I mean, yeah, it is, to them, but it’s actually a pretty popular attraction. The rings, mostly. There are seven of them, and they’re made of ice and rock, so they’re incredibly suited for ice skating, and…”

A hand falls over her mouth and the Master stares right at her when he says: “Doctor, I’m not one of your humans. I **know** all of that already. It’s why we’re **here**.”

The Doctor blushes. “Right. I forgot.” There are just so many cool things she wants to share with someone! Like the fact that the planet itself mostly consists of helium and hydrogen, but has an iron-nickel and rock core. She wants to talk about the 82 moons orbiting Saturn, wants to tell someone about the ‘String of Pearls’ in the northern latitudes, wants someone to gush over the magnetic field with her.

But the Master is tugging her after him, looking mildly bored already, and the Doctor decides that she’ll just have to tell someone else about it later. Ryan always seems pretty interested in other planets.

So she skips after the Master, adjusting to the little extra pull of gravity. It’s really not that much different from Earth, but enough that she tripped and fell the first time she visited Saturn. She’s incredibly glad that he wasn’t with her then to see it. He’d have laughed and taken a picture, for future blackmail purposes and for his own amusement.

“I still don’t see why we didn’t choose Neptune or Uranus,” the Master mutters when she catches up to him. “Those are two perfectly good ice giants. But no, you **had** to choose the **tourist attraction**. _Don’t know why I go along with it._ ”

His last words clearly aren’t meant for the Doctor’s ears, with how quietly he says them. She pretends she didn’t hear them and just grins to herself.

“Of course I had to choose Saturn! Neptune and Uranus don’t have established areas to skate yet, and I always wanted to try ice skating on Saturn’s rings. It’s supposed to be amazing. Besides, I really wanted to be part of this historical moment.” She twirls on the spot until he grabs her arm and she almost stumbles into him, giggling.

“Alright, you have my attention. What historical moment are you talking about?”

The Doctor gives him a wide smile and launches right into the answer: “Well, today, on the 21st December 2020, Jupiter and Saturn cross paths and form a ‘double planet’, or at least that’s what it will look like on Earth. It’s basically Earth, Jupiter and Saturn aligning perfectly with the sun. The last time this happened was in 1623, and it won’t happen again for about 400 years.”

She throws him a grin. “2,000 years ago, this happened, too, and the people who saw the planets meet like that called it ‘Star of Bethlehem’ or ‘Star of Wonder’.”

The Master snorts. “Humans are so quick to take ordinary celestial conjunctions as miracles…”

“Aren’t they?” the Doctor sighs with a smile, twirling around again. “I think it’s pretty amazing of them, you know? Their optimism in the face of planets moving like that. They could all take it as a sign that nothing matters, that there are planets out there so much bigger and grander than them, but they don’t. They make up stories of saviors and miracles. They get **hope** from it!”

With an eyeroll, the Master catches her in his arms. “Yes, very commendable of them. Now, are we going to join the masses on the ice over there or do you want to keep waxing poetry about humanity?”

Sheepishly, the Doctor nods. “You’re right. We’re here to have fun. Even if this is fun already.” When he gives her a look, she hastens to add: “But you already know this stuff and don’t need me to talk about humans, I get it.”

She takes his hand in hers and pulls him along, away from where they parked the TARDIS and towards where a mass of aliens of various shapes and colors are entering the ice rink, some with spacesuits and some without.

The two of them don’t need their spacesuits, given that there is an artificial atmosphere around the whole premise, suited to most beings across the galaxy. It **is** pretty cold, however, which is why the Master made her put on a pair of gloves, her rainbow scarf and a cute beanie he managed to find in her wardrobe. The Doctor has no idea whose beanie it was originally but she really likes it.

He, of course, is wearing his black leather gloves, a dark purple scarf and a blue beanie. It suits him, the Doctor thinks, and when he glances down at her, she can’t help but lean up and press a quick kiss to his lips.

“You look good,” she says when they part.

“So do you, luv,” he returns the compliment. “Now come on, before there’s no space for us.”

The Doctor snorts even as they steer towards the ice skate booth. “Not likely. The ice rink stretches all around the ring, and there are six more of them on the others. You could put whole civilizations on the rings and it would barely be crowded. Well, small civilizations.”

He just gives her another eyeroll and then it’s their turn to get ice skates. The Doctor frowns. Wasn’t there a whole line of people in front of them just now? A glance at the Master tells her that he did something while she was distracted telling him stuff.

“I didn’t do anything bad,” he says, answering her unasked question, “only made them temporarily move out of the way. I have no desire to stand in line for hours and you’d get bored two minutes in.”

Then he smiles at the lilac alien at the booth. “Hello. We’d like to rent two pairs of ice skates.”

“Sizes?” the alien (a Harakee, the Doctor thinks, judging by their color and their additional limbs) asks, their seven arms busy sorting shoes into boxes at their side. When the Master gives them the sizes, two arms stretch far behind them and grab two boxes off the shelves.

“Twenty credits for one day,” they say with the boredom of someone who has to repeat the exact same sentences every five minutes every day for decades. “Return is here. There is a timer on the skates that retracts the blades after the day is over. For more time, return here. Theft is punishable with a month imprisonment or a heavy fine, and it’s useless anyway as the skates deactivate once they leave the premise. Lockers are over there. Have a nice day on the ice.”

The Master pays for their skates and the Doctor takes the boxes, grinning at the Harakee and giving them a little wave before following the Master off to the side. “They were cheery,” she comments with a small smile.

“Working in retail does that to a person, I believe,” he says, already pulling off his shoes and putting on the skates. They’re a deep purple color. Somehow, the Doctor doesn’t think it’s a coincidence, especially when she pulls out her own TARDIS blue skates.

“Alright, how did you manage to get us color-coded skates?”

He throws her a grin. “I called ahead and requested them for us. You didn’t think I’d subject myself to the horror of skates that clash with my outfit, did you?”

Alright, he has a point there.

“Well, thank you, then. For getting me blue ones. They’re pretty.”

Together, they put their shoes into one of the lockers. The Master makes sure to tie the key around his wrist, sliding his coat sleeve over it afterwards to keep it double safe. Then they walk over to the entrance to the ice rink.

The moment the Doctor sets foot on the ice, the skates beep and then she rises a few inches as the bladeS draw out. Next to her, the Master’s skates are doing the same.

“That’s a pretty neat technology,” she muses, trying to lift one foot to poke at the blade but forgetting that she’s standing on ice. Only the Master’s hand on her arm keeps her from toppling right over.

“Doctor, how about you put aside your curiosity for now and just enjoy this?” he asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Right, yeah.”

He waits until both her feet are safely back on the ice before letting go and skating off. With her mouth open, the Doctor stares after him. He moves so gracefully! How did he learn to do that?! She takes a step, starts to slip and wildly waves her arms around until she gets her balance back.

Alright, so she might have suggested ice skating without ever having done it before. But she thought it would be easy! **He** makes it look like the easiest thing in the world.

The Master turns around and sees her standing there, arms stretched out and definitely not enjoying the experience as much as he is. With envy the Doctor watches as he does… _something_ … and then he’s drawing a pretty curve and sliding back towards her, speed tapering off the closer he gets until he comes to a stop before her.

“Doctor,” he starts, and she can already hear the incredulity in his voice, “have you… have you ever ice skated before?”

She shoots him a glare. “No, alright? I thought it’d be easy. It **looks** easy. It looks **incredibly** easy for you. How did you even… do that? That swirly thing? I can barely take one step without losing balance!”

When he doesn’t answer immediately, she looks up to find the widest, most shit-eating grin ever on his face. “You can’t ice skate,” he says, voice filled with glee. When the Doctor moves to slap his arm, it completely throws off her balance and she almost slips.

A yelp escapes her lips before two arms are around her, holding her up and stabilizing her. “This is precious, Doctor, I hope you know that,” the Master whispers into her ear and she scrunches up her face.

“It’s unfair. I’m great at stuff like this! Why’re you so much better than me?”

He gently pulls away, helping her stand on her own, only their hands connected.

“Doctor, it’s shoes with **knives** strapped to them. Of course I know how to skate. For all that I was mostly interested in hats, I did like high heels, and ice skating isn’t all that different when it comes to balance.”

It takes her a moment to process that.

“Ah. Alright, that does make sense,” the Doctor finally concedes.

“Balance is a very important part of skating,” the Master explains, gently tugging on her hands as he somehow slides **backwards** , pulling her along. “Always keep your back upright, don’t slouch. Keep the blades perfectly on the ice. Try not to lean forward or you might trip and fall.”

Slowly, the Doctor follows his instructions. It’s harder than it sounds.

“Bend your knees, move your feet, slide them over the ice, like this.” He demonstrates it, somehow **still** skating backwards, and the Doctor tries to mimic him. “Try a gentle V-shape. Lift the foot you’re not currently sliding over the ice and keep your balance. Once you’ve got that down, you can do it the way I do, sliding from V to A, like this.” He demonstrates and motions for her to copy.

She does, sliding her feet out the way he is, even if he’s doing it the other way round. “Hey, this isn’t that hard after all!” she says, and promptly her foot slips and she almost topples them both over. If not for his perfectly solid hold on the ice, they would be on the ground.

“It just takes a bit of practice. You’re doing really well so far, Doctor.” She smiles at him. And then he lets go of one of her hands and panic fills her as she grabs it again. “Hey, don’t let go!”

The Master chuckles. “I was going to hold your other hand so we could skate together a little.” Oh. That… makes sense.

“Ah. Okay. Yeah, alright.”

Grudgingly, she lets go of his hand and keeps perfectly still until he’s by her side. “Ready?” he asks, and she isn’t, but she nods anyway, and then they’re gently sliding across the ice.

The Doctor is so focused on keeping upright and taking steps and not toppling over and not letting go of the Master’s hand that she almost crashes right into someone else. A tug on her arm makes her look up just in time to jerk to the right, into the Master, who barely manages to keep them both standing.

“Eyes up, Doctor,” he advises. “Your feet won’t slip because you’re not looking at them. They **will** if you skate right into other people.”

“Sorry, yeah,” she mutters, a blush overtaking her cheeks. She hopes he thinks it’s just the cold but he’s not human so he knows they don’t get cold so fast…

“How do I stop?” she asks when they start moving again. “Just in case…”

The Master gently lets go of her hand, skates in front of her and then spreads his legs, feet somehow stopping their slide across the ice. “This is the easiest.” The Doctor carefully slides forward a bit and then copies his movements. And it works!

“Yes, exactly like that,” he praises, and her hearts skip a few beats.

And then they drop down into her stomach when he throws her a grin and skates away from her, fluently spins so his back is to her and he can’t see her anymore. Wide-eyed, the Doctor watches him slide further and further away, going left and right and spinning in circles and waves and…

She should… try to go after him. No, she shouldn’t. She should wait for him to come back. Maybe she can return to the entrance… But when the Doctor looks back, the entrance is so far away that she only barely makes out its shape. Did they really go that far together?

Her balance slips. Quickly, she throws her arms out and stabilizes herself. At least **that’s** something she can do.

With a sigh, she turns and searches for the shape of her best enemy again. All she sees is endless ice and countless people everywhere.

Well. While he’s gone, maybe she can try and learn to do this without him. That would be a nice surprise, wouldn’t it?

Slowly, she takes a step, slides over the ice, takes a step with the other leg, slides. Step, slide, step, slide, until she's barely even stepping, only sliding. She’s doing little waves in the V-to-A shapes. This… this is quite nice, actually.

A smile slips onto her lips as the Doctor skates over the ice. She even tries a circle. It probably looks more like a jerky oval but hey, she turned! That’s progress!

She skates across the ice, past several other people, grinning and just enjoying the feeling. Why hasn’t she tried this before? Ice skating is amazing! And now that she knows how, it’s actually incredibly easy to –

Everything flips and then she’s blinking up at Saturn’s third ring, dazed, knees hurting a little, head throbbing a lot. What… happened?

“Doctor, you alright?” she hears the Master next to her, and then his hand is carefully stroking the hair from her face. He’s kneeling next to her, peering down at her fallen body with a concerned frown.

“… Think so. I was doing okay. Don’t know what happened.”

She blinks several times. The pain in her knees is abating. The pain in her head isn't. “My head hurts a bit.”

Gentle fingers lift her head and then she sucks in a breath when they ghost over the spot where it hurts. “Ow,” she says, a bit unnecessarily.

“You hit your head pretty hard there, I think.” Two arms pull her up into a sitting position and the Doctor whimpers slightly. Everything blurs. “It’s alright, I’ve got you,” the Master whispers as he pulls her into a hug. Over his shoulder, several people are staring at them.

“People are staring,” the Doctor mutters.

He pulls back and turns to them. “Everything’s fine.”

It seems to stop their worrying, as most of them just skate away. A few still throw them a glance, but no one stays to bother them.

“Do you want to keep going, luv? Or rather leave?”

She frowns. Her head really hurts a lot. But it would be unfair to him if she decided they should leave, wouldn’t it?

“What about you? You seemed to have a lot of fun.”

He frowns at her. “Doctor, just because I like ice skating doesn’t mean I’ll enjoy it knowing that you’re in pain. Tell me, honestly, do you want to leave?”

She shrugs. “’S kinda hurting a lot,” she confides. It does. She feels a little dizzy, too. Maybe it’s just the sitting up…

“Alright. Come on, then.” Carefully he helps her onto her knees and then up onto the skates. When she wobbles and stumbles, he wraps an arm around her waist. “It’s my fault. I should have stayed with you until I was sure you wouldn’t fall.”

“No, it’s not your fault!” the Doctor immediately says. “I was doing fine. I just… tripped, or something. I don’t know. But I was having fun and I was going really fast and then I was on my back. You didn’t do this. I did.”

“I still shouldn’t have left you so early.”

She gently nudges him in the side. “Stop. Blaming. Yourself. I just had a fall. It’s no big deal.” Her head is getting worse and bending her knees is painful. She feels sick. She doesn’t say any of it out loud. He’s already blaming himself too much.

“We’ll see about that. Once we’re back on your TARDIS, you’re getting a med-scan.”

Shit. That’s something she probably won’t be able to talk herself out of.

“Alright,” the Doctor mumbles.

Together, they slowly skate towards the entrance. Every step further makes the Doctor’s knees hurt more. Somehow, it’s harder to keep upright this time. The Master’s arm around her is the only thing keeping her balanced now.

“We’re almost there, luv, don’t worry. I’ve got you,” he breathes into her ear, tightening his hold. Looking ahead, the Doctor realizes he’s right. Only a little further.

The moment they slide over the threshold, the skates beep.

With a little cry of shock, the Doctor topples over when the blades retract. But then she’s being pulled back into the Master’s chest, held upright only by him, and she clings to him as tight as she can. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you.” He pulls her up, helps her over to a bench and sits her down.

“Wait here, I’ll get our shoes.”

She nods and then leans back, watches him walk away.

Her knees hurt. Her head hurts. The Doctor probes one knee with her fingers and hisses. Yeah, alright, that hurts. She feels like throwing up. She doesn’t know whether the wet patches on her trousers are the ice melting or not. Is she bleeding?

The Master returns, already wearing his own shoes again. He drops to his knees in front of her to gently pull the skates off and put her boots on, lacing them for her. She doesn’t know what to do with that. He looks… nervous.

“It really wasn’t your fault,” she says quietly and watches as he flinches. “You know me. I’m clumsy. It was bound to happen. I **constantly** trip and fall.”

A little of the guilt the Doctor can see in his eyes melts away and he gives her a small grin. “You do fall a lot. Remember last week?”

Oh, she shouldn’t have said anything…

“Nope, nope, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she denies, vehemently. “Absolutely no recollection of anything that happened last week. I’ve got temporary memory-loss.”

But the Master is grinning at her, a full grin this time, and the Doctor feels relieved. She doesn’t like it when he blames himself for something, especially when it’s not his fault. “Oh, Doctor, don’t you worry. I have a picture.”

Hang on, what?!

“You **_what_**?!”

As he pulls her up, he chuckles and says: “I got into the habit of having my phone handy, in case you do something incredibly stupid, like trip over the TARDIS threshold or face-plant into a glass door, and I was lucky to have gotten the perfect picture of you toppling right into that…”

“Okay, alright!” the Doctor calls out, accidentally gaining a lot of attention and ducking her head the moment she realizes it. “I’m gonna get you to delete that later, I hope you know that,” she mutters, and has to endure his grin widening.

“Oh, not a chance.”

He helps her over to the return booth. The Harakee gives them a look but doesn’t ask. Their arms sort the skates right back into the shelves behind them. “Thank you for stopping by. Have a nice day,” they say without sounding like they mean it.

The Doctor grins at them and waves goodbye as the Master tugs her along towards where they parked the TARDIS. Her knees are hurting less now but her head is throbbing harder and harder. The dizziness isn't going away. Does she have a concussion? Maybe she does. Who knows?

They reach the door and step inside. Immediately, the TARDIS lets out a series of beeps and flashing lights. With an irritated sigh, the Doctor waves a hand at her. “’S fine. I tripped, old girl. I’m fine. Please stop the light flashing…”

“We aren’t sure she’s fine yet. I need to take her to the med-bay for a check-up,” the Master corrects her words quickly, giving her a side-glance. When the Doctor makes a noise of protest, she gets one raised brow and an insistent beeping back.

“Hey, you’re not supposed to team up on me,” she complains.

The Master presses a kiss to her forehead and then starts leading her down the hallway. “You shouldn’t have made us get along for you, then.”

Maybe she really shouldn’t have.

Her legs give out.

Strong arms catch her and the grin is wiped off the Master’s face within moments as he gazes at her. “Doctor?”

“Mhm…” she mutters. Her head hurts. A lot.

She’s lifted up and has to blink away the dizziness. Her head hurts. She feels sick. “’M not feeling so well,” she mumbles.

“Shh, it’s alright, I know.”

He carries her… somewhere. Med-bay? Probably.

The Doctor is set down on a bed and then something beeps next to her. Med-scan. A gentle hand strokes the hair out of her face. The Master looks down at her with a worried frown.

“How are you feeling, luv?”

She sniffs. “Ow.”

Something beeps and she flinches.

The Master moves away for a moment. He speaks loudly, sounding like he’s reading something off a chart. Yes, that makes sense. “You’ve got a scraped knee, likely bruises, too, and a concussion. You’ll need a lot of rest, water and proteins. No moving around, no running, and **you** , dear, have to stop flashing lights for a while, until she’s okay again.”

With a pout, the Doctor lifts her head to look at him. “No running?”

“No running.”

He joins her again and gives her a long look. “I’d like to take off your trousers, to check on your knees. After that, I’ll get you to your rooms and get you some water. Alright?”

She nods. “Alright.”

With practiced ease, he unclips her braces and pulls her trousers down. The Doctor winces when the fabric scrapes over her knees. “Ow,” she says. He strokes her cheek. “It’s alright, luv, it’s gonna be alright.”

It doesn’t look pretty. Her left knee is bloody and gaping open while the right one is just a little scraped. The Master unlaces her boots and tugs her trousers all the way off.

She feels faint. The blood isn't helping making her feel better.

“This won’t hurt,” he says, taking a wet towel and wiping off the blood. The Doctor winces and grabs his arm. “Hurts a lot,” she forces out.

“I lied.”

Of course he did.

She clenches her teeth and tightens her hold on his arm until her nails dig in. He doesn’t complain. Instead, he cleans the scrapes with cool water and then sprays disinfect on it. It stings and the Doctor whimpers. “It’s alright, I’m almost done.”

And he is. Just a little bit longer and then the Master gets out gauze and bandages. His hands are so gentle when he wraps up the wounds.

“All done,” he murmurs, gently stroking the hair from her face. With a faint smile, the Doctor leans into his hand when he cups her cheek.

“How’s your head, luv?”

She scrunches up her face. “Hurts.”

“Alright, come on, sit up a bit so I can take a look.”

The Master helps her up and then gently pulls her beanie off. Her head throbs. Gentle fingers comb away her hair and she hisses.

“It’s not bleeding, at least. But it **is** quite a bump. Not surprising.”

She sniffs. “It hurts a lot.”

“I know.” He presses a kiss to her forehead and carefully puts the beanie back over her head. “Come on, then. Let’s get you to your room.”

When the Doctor puts her legs down, everything spins. She blinks against the onslaught of dizziness and reaches for the Master’s arm. “I feel sick,” she says.

“Alright, it’s alright. I’ve got you.” And then she’s in his arms, the whole world swirling around her, and she’s clinging to him. He’s the only steady thing. Like a big rock in the ocean. Those… those really big rocks that the waves knock against but can’t move because it’s big out of the water but far bigger underneath. That sort of rock.

“I’m a rock, am I?”

Oh, did she say that out loud?

“You did. You still are.”

“Sorry. I’m feeling a bit… woozy.”

“Understandable.”

He carries her down the hall and into her room. Well. By now, she should start calling it their room, shouldn’t she? It’s been months. They’ve been sharing her bed for ages now. By right, it’s his as much as it’s hers.

With great care, the Master sets her down on the bed, piling the pillows up all around her head and gently settling her body into the fluffy mountain, onto her side.

“There we go.” When he makes to pull away, she grabs his hand and drags him down into a soft kiss. His lips are warm against hers, his hand on her shoulder steadies her far more than the bed beneath her.

“Thank you,” the Doctor breathes against his lips when he pulls back.

“For what? Letting you get a concussion?”

She frowns at him. “You didn’t. I tripped. We’ve established that. You had nothing to do with that fall, it was all me.”

He sighs and the Doctor narrows her eyes at him.

“I tripped. I never ice skated before. It was inevitable. I thought I could do it but apparently, I couldn’t. I went too fast. And then I fell. This had **nothing** to do with you. And if you’re gonna keep blaming yourself for me tripping, then I’m gonna start blaming you for **every** time I trip. That’s a long list. You sure you want me to do that?”

For a moment, it’s silent. Then the Master starts chuckling. Seconds later the Doctor joins in.

“Alright, alright, it was entirely your fault.”

She grins at him. “Finally.”

He raises a brow. “You do realize that I’m going to lord this over you forever now, yes?”

Ah. Yes, that is… a valid concern she hadn’t thought of.

Her face scrunches up and she pouts.

With an eyeroll, the Master pulls back. “I’ll go get you water. Stay right here, I’ll be back in a bit.”

He leaves the room and the Doctor snuggles into her pillows, turning the other way and making herself comfortable. Her head still hurts but her knees are feeling better, the nausea is abating, finally, and now she just feels exhausted.

She’s so tired…

**—o—**

A gentle touch stirs her awake again. “Shh, it’s just me. Come on, luv, sit up. You need to drink a bit of water, then you can go back to sleep.” With a hand on her back, he helps her sit and presses a cup of cool water to her lips. It feels nice. She drinks two full cups before he lets her lie down again. “Go back to sleep, luv. I’m here.”

The Master settles in beside her, wraps his arms around her body and pulls her against him. The Doctor goes without protest and snuggles into him. Her eyelids droop. She’s pretty tired…

“We should do that again soon,” she mumbles into his chest.

“What, having you trip and get a concussion?”

She rolls her eyes. “Ice skating. Obviously.”

His lips press against her forehead. “I know. Just wanted to rile you up.”

“’S not working. Too tired…”

The Doctor feels herself slip away.

“Sleep, luv,” the Master breathes against her skin.

And then she’s out.

** The End **

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo.  
> The 'Star of Bethlehem' is actually true, according to several articles I've found online.  
> Most of the Saturn things are taken from various sites.
> 
> I headcanon Missy learned how to ice skate because K N I F E S H O E S and I just can't see the Master not be good at ice skating, tbh. I don't know why.
> 
> I haven't ice skated in at least two years now, so forgive me if there's something wrong with the instructions.  
> (I also watched a YouTube video and realized that I learned ice skating completely different? And I took out the bit of teaching newbies how to fall... Because I already knew I was going to let the Doctor fall down.)
> 
> Yeeah, so on Friday, I walked my dog, and we were running down a hill, and suddenly I was on my back, blinking up at the sky. My first thought was 'ow', my second thought was 'is the dog okay?' and my third thought was 'hey, I can use this!'
> 
> The Doctor falls a lot in this. Thus, the title.
> 
> I want to write something for 23rd and 25th. No promises yet, though, because I only have fluff no plot for 23rd and I know the 25th will be a longer story, but since it's the 25th, I don't know whether I'll manage it or not.
> 
> Stay safe, wear your masks, read Thoschei!


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